Penguin Random House, Belletristik, The Rain in Portugal (Englisch, Billy Collins, 2017)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER &bull From former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins comes a twelfth collection of poetry offering over fifty new poems that showcase the generosity, wit, and imaginative play that prompted The Wall Street Journal to call him &ldquo America&rsquo s favorite poet.&rdquo The Rain in Portugal&mdash a title that admits he&rsquo s not much of a rhymer&mdash sheds Collins&rsquo s ironic light on such subjects as travel and art, cats and dogs, loneliness and love, beauty and death. His tones range from the whimsical&mdash &ldquo the dogs of Minneapolis . . . / have no idea they&rsquo re in Minneapolis&rdquo &mdash to the elegiac in a reaction to the death of Seamus Heaney. A student of the everyday, Collins here contemplates a weather vane, a still life painting, the calendar, and a child lost at a beach. His imaginative fabrications have Shakespeare flying comfortably in first class and Keith Richards supporting the globe on his head. By turns entertaining, engaging, and enlightening, The Rain in Portugal amounts to another chorus of poems from one of the most respected and familiar voices in the world of American poetry. Praise for The Rain in Portugal &ldquo Nothing in Billy Collins&rsquo s twelfth book . . . is exactly what readers might expect, and that&rsquo s the charm of this collection.&rdquo &mdash The Washington Post &ldquo This new collection shows [Collins] at his finest. . . . Certain to please his large readership and a good place for readers new to Collins to begin.&rdquo &mdash Library Journal &ldquo Disarmingly playful and wistfully candid.&rdquo &mdash Booklist.